U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks makes a point during a sometimes contentious town hall meeting tonight. (The Huntsville Times/Dave Dieter)

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- "Vigorous" was the word U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks used for his town hall meeting at Grissom High School Monday night. Tense is another word for several moments of the more than two-hour meeting with constituents.

Brooks had a mostly friendly audience among the 300-plus people who attended the event sponsored by the South Huntsville Civic Association. However, not everyone agreed with the representative's conservative view points.

About a dozen people in the newly formed and loosely organized Occupy Huntsville group hammered Brooks on issues ranging from tax loopholes for corporations to the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that allows companies to donate to political campaigns just as citizens can.

"There won't be any protesting, we have no signs," said Mark Jones, an engineer from Huntsville who brought a list of questions for the group to ask. "We don't want a fight. We want a level playing field."

After Brooks finished the Powerpoint presentation he gives at every town hall, Jones and others immediately got in line to ask often challenging questions.

The first woman in line asked why the government does not close corporate tax loopholes, allowing Brooks to make his oft-repeated point that increasing taxes on businesses and the wealthy hurts jobs.

When the woman began to press her point, the crowd grew noisy, with some shouting "Next!" to get her to step away from the microphone. That scene repeated itself several times throughout the evening as some in line challenged Brooks on his answers.

One of the more confrontational moments came when a man asked about the Gula Graham Group's fund-raising efforts on Brooks' behalf. While Brooks said the group had previously worked for him to raise money for the National Republican Committee and other efforts, he is now shopping for another fundraiser.

The man continued to ask Brooks about the organization and the money it raised for him, waving papers while the audience began to loudly object. Brooks at one point asked if there was any way to turn off the man's microphone so he could finish his response.

While some interaction between Brooks and those asking questions grew argumentative, Brooks encouraged the crowd to take the debate in stride.

"This is what a town hall's all about," he said. "Just enjoy it."

Before the town hall, Brooks also met with about 100 Grissom High students who are taking U.S. government classes. That session didn't prove to be an easy one for the representative, either, as the students asked questions about the many layoffs NASA has faced and the state of the economy.

Grissom senior Jeremy Mock and Brooks went back and forth about illegal immigration. Mock said his grandmother had immigrated from Mexico many years ago and his uncle employed many hard-working Hispanic immigrants in his construction company.

When Mock began to make a point about the illegal immigrants who had left Alabama after the passage of the state's tough new immigration law, Brooks interrupted him and broke out in a big grin.

"Isn't that great," he said, getting applause from a number of the students.